Area chefs, farmers collaborate on dinner

Tina Greci of Joey’s Italian Grille serves fried arancine with stuffed peppers during the Lake County Soil & Water Conservation District’s “Farmafare” at The Holden Arboretum in Kirtland.

Billed as a celebration of local food, the recent Farmafare dinner staged at the end of harvest season beneath a tent at Holden Arboretum also celebrated its sponsoring organization, the 67-year-old Lake Soil & Water Conservation District, which had its annual meeting as part of the dinner.
Soil and water are, after all, essential to the thriving of local agriculture, and seven area farms provided the ingredients prepared by chefs from 11 area restaurants.
In a brochure introducing the evening’s participating farmers and restaurateurs, the LSWCD reported the annual output of the farms, in terms of economic impact, is more than $151 million a year.
Chefs working at food stands, spaced around the tent, served up elegant, well-presented dishes using produce grown by Secor Nursery in Perry, Wayman Farms and Hart Acres, both in Madison Township; Sage’s Apples Fruit Farm in Chardon and fifth-generation farmer Todd West at West Orchards Farm Market in Perry.
First-generation farmer Larry Klco, a current LSWCD board member, provided lots of ingredients to chefs, including English fingerling potatoes and Pink Lady squash to Nick Kustala, who served up beef brisket from the free-ranging antibiotic-free Scottish Highland cattle raised by New Creation Farm in Chardon Township.
Joe Longo’s stand served melt-in-your-mouth arancini, a Sicilian-based risotto ball stuffed with fresh basil pesto and homemade mozzarella. It was stunning with Rainbow Farms-grown stuffed Sweetie peppers over a tomato sauce that also originated at the same Perry Township farm.
“I’ll use Larry’s (Klco) Rainbow farms tomatoes as long as I can get them,” said Longo. “And I’m really glad he’s extended his growing season with hydroponics and greenhouses.”
Longo believes the proof of better quality from local produce is found in side-by-side tastes with tomatoes and other vegetables coming from California.
“I use local produce at all my restaurants,” Longo said.
Longo’s restaurant group includes Joey’s Italian Grille in Chardon and Madison Township, Cater to You catering, and Longo’s restaurants on both Lake Shore Boulevard and Mentor Avenue in Mentor.
He was one of several restaurateurs at Farmafare to share plans for new restaurants that will open soon.
“My dad started Longo’s in 1969, making it the oldest restaurant in Mentor, and soon we’ll have the newest restaurant,” he said.
He plans to open Pastina, named after his sister Tina Greci, in a building he recently purchased opposite Walmart in Mentor.
“It was the Phoenix Buffet, and we’re developing a 6,000-square-foot restaurant with a 2,000-square foot patio,” he said. “We’re calling it Pastina, because we already have a Joey’s named after me, and my sister Tina has also been in this business her entire life.”
He hasn’t yet named a chef, but the plan is to make everything from scratch, providing pasta for all the Longo restaurants made with a new $30,000 pasta machine from Italy.
After tasting meats from New Creation Farm, Longo said he’s begun working with that farm family to source his beef from their cattle and his pork from their Berkshire pigs. Both are raised outdoors without antibiotics or hormones.
“The meat is just delicious,” he said.
Longo said the current space will be gutted, and an all-new kitchen and interior added from the ground-up. He anticipates opening in February.
Opening even sooner, probably in the next few weeks, is the Little Mountain Brewing Co. and its Reserve House eatery in Mentor.
“It’s in the process of moving now from Kirtland,” said chef Chris Sotovsky, who was serving New Creation Farm’s prime rib and smashed potatoes from his stand at Farmafare.
At that new restaurant, he’ll offer tapas small plates, ideal for pairing with beer from the brewery, and use spent grains from the brewing process to make his own pumpernickel bread. The brewery will open in the space opposite Great Lakes Mall that once was Club Nine pool hall and will also have a component where beer lovers can come to brew their own. It’s got plenty of parking and is set back from Mentor Avenue not far from where Plaza Boulevard will eventually be extended to Tyler Boulevard.
Kustala, whom many remember from Lure Bistro in Willoughby, now runs the Estate on Coffee Creek from his Victorian-era home in Austinburg Township and Vault Steakhouse in Madison Village.
“I’ll be opening Bar Lure in Madison Village,” he said. “It’s a small space, and we’ll be serving sushi and things from our raw bar.”
Others serving locally sourced dishes at Farmafare included Nate Fagnilli of Crosswinds Grille in Geneva on the Lake, who strives for a 100 percent local menu; and Deirdre and Alex Bevan, with their breads from a hand-built brick oven at Stone Dragon Bakery. Jean Mackenzie of Mackenzie Creamery was there with her artful goat cheeses, and so was Christian Shulz from Madison Country Club, John Tutolo of Biga Wood Fired Pizzeria, and chef Brian Doyle of Sow Food.